Sport

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Super Saturday for Shinko King

The progeny of deceased stallion Shinko King had a standout day on Saturday, with Megablast taking out the Listed Caloundra Cup (2400m), while Monarch Chimes and Justa Charlie won the two feature jumps races at Hawke’s Bay.

Novara Park manager Ray Knight stood Shinko King at Ashwell Farm and is enjoying watching the continued success of his progeny.

"He was always a special horse, he was a very good racehorse and he probably didn’t get the patronage at stud we would have liked," Knight said.

"He’s just made every post a winner and it’s still going on. It’s lovely to see."

Shinko King was a dual stakes winner on the track before he retired to stud in Japan and subsequently shuttled to Ray Knight’s Ashwell Farm in New Zealand.

"He was the right horse in the wrong place," Knight said. "The Japanese don’t really support foreign-bred horses. He was on a smaller farm over there and didn’t get a lot of opportunities, although he did leave a lot of winners over there.

"We did a deal whereby he shuttled out here. I had him here for two seasons and when Mark Todd’s filly Bramble Rose was starting to show a bit, I managed at that stage to buy him and syndicate him and he stayed here (in New Zealand) after that."

Bramble Rose is one of six Group One winners sired by Shinko King, while he has left a further 13 stakes winners, including the Nigel Tiley-trained Megablast, who took his stakes win tally to two on the weekend.

Shinko King moved on to Paxton Park toward the end of his stud career where he eventually succumbed to laminitis.

"He never had the best feet," Knight said. "He was always tricky with his feet and in the end that’s what brought him undone. He was 21 at the time, so he had done pretty well."

Shinko King has become well-known for his ability to leave good jumpers, and that was reinforced on the weekend when he sired the winners of the two feature Hawke’s Bay jumps races.

One of those jumpers, Monarch Chimes, could return to Victoria to target further jumping spoils after placing in both of his starts at Warrnambool in Autumn.

"He’s a very good jumper and we’re proud of him," said Emma-Lee Browne, who trains the six-year-old gelding with husband David. "We’re tossing up whether to go back to Australia with him."